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A British photographer has scooped a global prize with his shot of
lightning over Blackpool.
Stephen Cheatley's picture depicts the Lancashire seaside resort - known
for its annual illuminations - lit up by a more celestial source during
a storm.
The amateur lensman beat 4,000 fellow snappers to be crowned Weather
Photographer of The Year with his Electric Blackpool image.
Judges said it had been "an extremely competitive year".
Mr Cheatley said he set out after an "intense" summer storm a few days
earlier had made him "determined to try to capture some strikes this
time".
His persistence was rewarded when, just after midnight, Blackpool's
famous promenade was lashed by rain and multiple bolts of lightning.
He said he chose the seafront location to capture some "famous buildings
in the shot like the piers and Blackpool Tower".
Mr Cheatley was named overall winner, while prizes were also given in
the over-17s and under-16s categories.
Mr Cheatley won a £500 prize, a new camera and a year's membership to
the Royal Meteorological Society, which organised the competition.
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Stephen Cheatley had to contend with "pretty extreme" conditions to bag
his winning shot
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Dan Matthewman took his photo on a
climbing expedition to the French Alps. After catching the first cable
car of the day, he said he was "just in time to catch the other climbers
descending the snow ridge in the fog". He won the over-17s category
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Neil Barr said of his shot, taken during a blizzard in Greenock,
Scotland: "I headed out on foot to the local supermarket for essential
supplies and took my camera with me to hopefully capture some of the
magic. The wind and the snow made it difficult to capture shots without
getting snow on the lens." He won third place in the over-17s category
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Nikoly Schegolev's photo was taken at a train station near dawn "with
the sun rising behind the houses". "Due to the cold weather, steam from
the engine was especially noticeable," he said. His photo was placed
second in the over-17s category
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Kathryn Parent's photo won the The Public's Favourite award. She was on
a storm-chasing holiday in America's so-called Tornado Alley when she
took it. Mrs Parent and her husband spotted the "massive supercell"
after they stopped to give another group of twister addicts a lift. They
named it the Ellie Cloud, because it reminded them of the woolly mammoth
character in the Ice Age film series. "I like to think of Ellie as our
reward for being good Samaritans," she said
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Hoang Viet Nguyen Phung won the under-16 category with Fog Wave - an
atmospheric shot capturing a mist-covered landscape
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